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Elimination Performances

As we at WhatNotToSing.com are fond of pointing out, the single most effective
way to stay alive in the competition is to sing well from week to week.
Only around 15% of all elimination performances have rated at
five stars (80+) or four stars (60+). And even a great
many of those "shocking" eliminations can be readily explained:

Most occurred in the Final 4 or later, when there are
few contestants remaining and secondary voting factors come into play. Case in
point:
Melinda Doolittle
was eliminated despite turning in three
strong performances because fans of
Jordin Sparks
and
Blake Lewis
were motivated to vote hard to ensure their favorite was the "other" contestant
in the Finale along with Melinda. Whoops.

Some had a companion performance that was well below par. For example,
Josh Gracin's
rendition of
To Love Somebody earned
a solid 68 rating, but his other performance
that evening,
Jive Talkin' clocked in at just
17. We're certain that
Tamyra Gray
sympathized.

Some had high standard deviations, meaning that there was
considerable disagreement among the reviewers. Case in point:
Jennifer Hudson's"Weekend In New England" had an enormous
σ of 25 –
many viewers loved it, but quite a few didn't like it at all.

Phil Stacey'sBlaze Of Glory was a special case, as he had
the misfortune of turning in his best performance in one of the highest-rated
episodes ever and on a night in which two of the
remaining six contestants would be sent home. Bad timing.

Contestants are particularly well advised to knock 'em dead early.
No semifinalist has been eliminated on a five-star performance, and just
four in the first seven seasons went home after a four-star number:
Kelli Glover,
Aliceyn Cooney,
Lisa Leuschner, and
Suzy Vulaca.
(Don't ask about Season Eight, in which several contestants were
bounced from the competition on four-star performances, including
Ricky Braddytwice. But then, we'd don't think AI8 was staged as a real competition.)